


project ten on ten

by htmllost



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bisexual Peter Parker, Bisexual Tony Stark, Bisexuality, Coming Out, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Irondad, Panic Attacks, Pepper Potts Is a Good Bro, Poor Peter Parker, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pride, Self-Harm, Therapy, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, they talk about their (gags)... feelin- bro i can't even say it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:47:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22896679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/htmllost/pseuds/htmllost
Summary: “Mr. Stark, how well do you think you know me on the scale of 1-10?”-Aka Tony finds out he isn't as close to the kid as he thinks he is when Peter rates him a 6/10 on the closeness scale. Turns out there are four major things about Peter that he doesn't know, and he tries to be better so he can go back to being the kid's favourite again. He is competitive like that. Lots of angst and fluff with bonding.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 75
Kudos: 806





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> okay so here i am emerging from the shadows to post this. this is un-betaed but i wrote it with love. all chapters are completed and i will post them everyday so enjoy.

“Mr. Stark, how well do you think you know me on the scale of 1-10?”

Tony perks up a little as he eyes the boy sitting across the lab. He raises an eyebrow and lets his safety glasses fall further down his nose so he can get a good look at the kid.

Peter’s sitting on his own workbench, books spread across the table carelessly. He’s supposed to be working on his physics homework but it’s clear his mind is wandering elsewhere. His feet are kicked up on the table as he leans back in his chair dangerously (a habit Tony has desperately been trying to get rid of), chewing the end of his pencil, deep in thought.

Tony doesn’t answer because he can tell Peter isn’t finished. Sure enough, the kid goes on, “I mean, I’ve just been thinking about it with all my friends and stuff, and I started thinking about you. I think Ned’s a nine, for sure. MJ is a ten because she knew I was Spider-man before I even told her so who knows what else she might know about me. May… I think eight. I dunno, maybe nine soon.”

Tony honestly has no idea where he’s going with his rambling. But it gets Tony thinking too. How well _does_ he know Peter? They’ve known each other for a while and they’ve hung out in the lab every weekend after the whole Vulture situation. Peter even stays over most weekends. Apart from that, Tony has given Peter his personal phone number so he’s up to date with his little spider’s shenanigans.

He’s _texting_ the kid, for heaven’s sake. And Tony Stark never texts anyone.

“I just think there’s like a,” Peter waves his arms around cartoonishly, “like a, _threshold_ of knowledge about me, you know?”

“Right,” Tony says, trying to sound cool and collected, pretending that Peter’s words don’t affect him at all. But in all honesty, he is filled to the brim with anxiety. God, what if the kid says two or something while Tony here is considering him to be his son at this point. Not that he would ever admit that though.

“So, what number would you give me, hm?” Tony asks, feigning to go back to the circuitry underneath his fingers.

Peter is silent for a while and Tony stares at him nonchalantly from the corner of his eye. Then, the boy plops his feet back onto the ground loudly before straightening up.

“I think six,” Peter seems to settle on.

“Ouch,” Tony can’t help it as the word just slips out. He knows he definitely isn’t going to be as close as May or his nerdy friends but – _six?_ It makes him feel a special kind of bad.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Peter immediately says as he looks at Tony, his cheeks turning bright red. “I was just thinking of all the major things you don’t know about me and I deducted a point for each! God, that sounds so stupid, why did I even bring this up?” He promptly slams his face a little too harshly onto his open textbook to hide.

“You’re _Tony Stark!_ Why would you even care about this stuff,” he grumbles into the textbook pages.

“Hey, no hard feelings, kid,” Tony looks up and smiles at the kid like everything is A-Okay with his ego, his insecurities, and his self-esteem. “Maybe you can tell me those dreaded four things and I can go back to being your favourite person ever in the whole world.”

For a moment it seems like Peter will, but then he just says, “Maybe, I should, huh?”

Silence cuts between them and it makes Tony feel like Peter is farther than he actually is. And for a moment, Tony feels like his dad. Has he not been good enough? Does Peter feel like he can’t talk to Tony? Sure, Tony’s still a little too closed off and he still finds himself putting on that cool, suave attitude in front of Peter. But he thought… Well, he doesn’t know what he thought. A six isn’t a two but it certainly isn’t even a seven.

“Anyway, forget that,” Peter says just when Tony thinks the silence can’t get any more painful. “I’m sick of doing physics, it’s the worst science. Can I see what you’re working on instead?”

“First of all, rude,” Tony chuckles. “Second of all, sure, come on.”

He’s glad Peter’s changed the subject as they fall back into comfortable banter. But Tony can’t ignore a clump of thoughts forming at the back of his mind, like maggots wiggling around in his brain. He knows he’s going to mull over this when he’s alone but for now, he lets himself get distracted by showing the kid his work.

“Okay, what’s bothering you?” Tony hears Pepper sigh as she sets her book down on her lap, face down. She’s currently sitting on the couch of their living room across him with her feet tucked under her comfortably.

“Nothing,” Tony mumbles as he goes back to picking lint off his lumpy sweater. Peter got him this one last Christmas. It’s navy blue in colour with a cartoon of Iron Man flying across New York City alongside a swinging Spider-man.

“You’re muttering to yourself,” Pepper says. Tony definitely is muttering to himself while bouncing his leg up and down, clearly agitated.

“It’s really stupid,” he admits.

“Oh, I don’t doubt it,” she chuckles.

He pouts like a petulant child at that but still tells her about the conversation he had with Peter earlier that week. She scoots across the couch so she can move closer to him, tucking herself into his side. He immediately wraps an arm around her.

“I’m not expecting a ‘ten’ but really, Pepper, I thought I was better than a six, y’know?” Tony mumbles as he runs his fingers through her soft hair. It’s shorter now and Tony offhandedly thinks it suits her more like this.

“You’re both idiots, you know that?” Pepper says and tilts her head to look up at Tony. “He’s probably saying that because he’s trying to open up to you more and doesn’t know how. You’re his childhood hero, he’s scared he’ll embarrass himself. Besides, knowing him, he’s probably insecure about whether you even _want_ to know things about him.”

“That’s ridiculous, of course, I wanna know!”

“Well, he doesn’t know that. He’s just a kid,” She straightens up and wraps her arms around him in the exact way she knows to ease her stupid soon-to-be husband. He immediately buries his face in her neck and melts in her arms. “Just talk to him. He made it pretty clear there are only four things that he wants to talk to you about.”

“But how’d you know he wants to talk to me about them?” Tony grumbles into her clavicle.

“Trust me, I know,” She says, running her fingers through Tony’s hair. “He wouldn’t have brought it up otherwise.”

Tony doesn’t argue further because, after all, Pepper knows best.

A couple of months ago, Tony had transferred his personal lab back to the Stark Tower in New York claiming that the busy hustle and bustle of the city helped him think better; but everyone knew it was just so he could be closer to the kid. Peter had just been glad that it was a shorter ride to the tower compared to the compound. Tony had gotten Peter his own room at the tower, at his personal penthouse too so they could spend weekends together.

The first thing he does when he arrives at the lab on Monday morning is, start a new project. Operation Four Things or Operation Try-Not-To-Be-A-Six or Operation Be-A-Better-Mentor-For-Peter.

Whatever, the name was a work in progress.

But the _point_ was that Tony was going to come up with a grand scheme to get closer to Peter in a totally not creepy way, even though all he wanted to do was run an extensive background check and dig up the boy’s dirty secrets. But he decided that wouldn’t count. Peter had to tell him himself.

So, what could he do? Ask him? No, that would be too straightforward and it would possibly scare the kid off. Hope for it to come up in conversation? That wasn’t a very good plan. Maybe he should try to be around the kid more. Spend some time with him and maybe Peter will feel comfortable enough to talk.

Yeah, that sounds good.

So of course, Tony spends the rest of the day staring at the clock, waiting for it to be time for Peter to get off school. He has a plan. He knows what to do.

As soon as it is time, he gets into a flashy bright orange convertible and drives to the boy’s school. Just in time too because as soon as he gets there, he spots Peter walking out with Ned. He adjusts his signature tinted sunglasses and gets out of the car so he could lean against it coolly.

Tony ignores the large crowd forming around him and lets his eyes stay trained on Peter as he makes his way toward Tony.

“God, I love causing scenes,” Tony grins as soon as a very red-faced Peter steps in front of him, being nudged forward by Ned. “I should do it more often, don’t you think? Maybe get a chopper next time.”

“Please don’t,” Peter squeaks.

He hops into the car – he’s still very athletic, mind you – and lets his glasses fall a little further down his nose so he can look at Peter, “Get in.” 

Peter needs one last push from Ned before taking his place in the passenger seat. Tony immediately speeds away.

Before Tony can say anything, Peter starts, “Oh my god, Mr. Stark, is everything okay? Is there a mission? I have my suit in my bag and I’ve got web-shooters on too! Do we have to go abroad again? Because this time I promised May I’d tell her before I did that again.”

“Jesus, kid, there’s no mission,” Tony says before Peter can say anything else. “I had an evening off and I wanted to hang out with my favourite local spider-ling.”

Peter narrows his eyes at the man, “You had an evening off?”

Tony meets his sceptical gaze, “What? It tends to happen sometimes.”

“I’m sure Miss Potts doesn’t think so,” Peter shoots back before sitting back in his seat.

“Okay, okay, guilty as charged,” Tony laughs. “I’ve been super stressed and you keep hounding me about overworking myself, so I cleared out an evening.”

“So, this is you partaking in self-care?” Peter asks almost as if he’s in awe. “Never thought I’d see the day.”

“I’ve had enough of your sass, menace,” Tony says fondly enough as he drives in the direction of the tower. To be honest he doesn’t know what they’re actually going to do. Sure, Peter comes to the tower all the time but it’s not like they do anything other than hanging out in the lab. Sometimes Peter won’t be in the mood for working so they’ll just watch a movie or something. That’s when Tony realises, he’s never hung out with the kid just for the sake of it.

No wonder he’s a six.

When they arrive at the tower, they head straight for the penthouse. Despite the fact that Peter sleeps here almost every weekend, they haven’t really utilised the space. They usually work in the lab until they’re ready to drop and come upstairs only to sleep. Neither of them knows how to cook so it’s not like the kitchen gets any use either. Tony even had a huge TV and couch set up in the lab because of how much they liked binging things, rendering the penthouse even more obsolete.

“So, what do we do?” Peter asks, dropping his school bag on the couch.

Very good question, Mr. Parker.

“Well, I haven’t really de-stressed willing before so… I don’t know?” Tony says.

Peter finds it very amusing and settles down on the couch as well. The living room has floor to ceiling windows that open up into the front of the penthouse giving them the view of not only the entire city but also Tony’s glittering pool.

“Whenever May gets stressed, she turns off her phone and makes me get her some pizza so we can watch a feel-good movie together,” Peter says. “She always feels pretty good after that.”

“I think I can work with that,” Tony smiles. It’s similar to what they usually do when they aren’t working but Tony likes the familiarity of it. It makes him feel more comfortable.

“Put something on, kid, I’ll get the pizza,” he grabs his Stark Tablet to place the order when he notices Peter glaring at him. “Don’t worry, I’ll turn this off right after.”

Tony watches from the corner of his eye as Peter scrolls through movies on the TV while Tony orders according to a spider-kid sized appetite. Soon enough, they’re both settled on the couch with a movie ready to play.

The movie plays and, Tony watches the screen. For some reason, he can feel Peter stealing glances at him from the corner of his eye. It makes him feel weird and he wonders if he’s done anything wrong. Or maybe he has something on his face?

The narrator talks about having a normal life – ‘ _I’m just like you’_ – and then he admits to being gay.

_Oh._

Realisation hits Tony and, he thinks he does a pretty good job at not letting it show on his face. The title screen comes up: ‘Love, Simon’.

“Have you seen this before?” Peter tries to ask casually.

“No, I don’t think I have,” Tony says just as casually.

This is very casual and normal, thank you.

Tony still feels a little watched as they watch the movie but they soon get lost in the story of it. The pizza arrives and as always, Peter gobbles most of it down. Not that Tony minds.

Tony has to admit he gets misty-eyed in a couple of scenes where he promptly puts on his sunglasses, earning a ‘come on, Mr. Stark, really?’ from Peter. Regardless, he sniffles behind his glasses.

When the movie’s over, Peter immediately turns to Tony at such velocity that he’s surprised the kid doesn’t snap his neck.

“Did you like it?” he asks.

Tony can tell he’s trying to be cool about it and not jumpy so he tries his best to be collected, “Yeah, it was super cheesy and feel-good. I wish I had a movie like when I was growing up.”

“Really?” Peter grins so widely at him that Tony can’t help but smile too.

“Yup. Would’ve given my parents less of a heart attack when they caught me with that guy in Milano in the 80’s if they’d seen this first,” he laughs.

Peter looks shocked at that. He looks like he wants to say something but Tony spares him, “I swear, I have to come out to the media as bisexual every year. They chalk it up to rumours every single time. What do I have to do? Break off the wedding with Pepper and marry Rhodey?”

Peter giggles at that and Tony can tell he feels elated. It makes his own heart swell up in the most wonderful way and, fuck. He should grab his sunglasses again.

“It’s good to hear that, Mr. Stark,” Peter says. “I wish the media had told young, or young- _er_ , I guess - me. Would’ve helped me out a lot.”

“Yeah?” Tony says. He can feel it. Peter’s about to tell him. He feels like he’s going to burst. Or maybe implode. He can’t wait to go from a six to a seven.

Just then, Peter’s eyes catch something behind him and they widen comically, “Oh my god, the sun’s setting! Mr. Stark, can I please go swim in the pool before the sun sets? Please!”

Tony feels a little speechless. He blinks at him a couple of times but then says, “Uh, yeah, sure, kid.”

The kid, honest to god, _pumps his fist in the air_ as he jumps out of his seat. _‘Really?’_ Tony wants to say but then he looks up at the kid and he can tell Peter feels lighter. More carefree and less restrained. So, Tony just smiles fondly at him as he watches him run off.

“Wait, aren’t you supposed to not swim after you eat a shit-ton of pizza?” Tony says but the boy has already stripped down to his boxers in front of the pool and is currently preparing to dive in.

“Mr. Stark, it’s already been thirty minutes since I ate! I’m allowed to swim!” Peter shouts back, and with that, he dives into the pool. Tony walks out to watch the boy warmly as he swims.

Soon, his head pops out and he grins, “Mr. Stark! Come in! It’s so much fun!”

“No thanks, kid, I’m fine not getting chlorine in my hair,” Tony chuckles, sitting down on one of the poolside loungers.

“Don’t be a party-pooper!” Peter taunts as he swims closer to Tony and rests his forearms on the edge. “This is a great way to de-stress on a hot day!”

“It’s literally October.”

“The trials and tribulations of global warming!” Peter dismisses. “Come on, it’ll be fun!”

Tony actually, really, really, _really_ doesn’t want to do this. But the kid is looking at him like _that_ and Tony wants to be a good mentor. He wants to bond with his protégé. So, despite everything, he sighs and stands up to he can shuck off his shirt and pants, stripping down to his boxers so he can go swimming with his stupid kid.

Instead of diving in, he steps into the pool like a civilised person and groans at how cold the water feels. “This is awful,” he grumbles as the water comes in chest-high, feeling a little breathless. It’s fine, he tells himself. This is totally fine.

“Oh, boohoo,” Peter teases. Then, he shouts, “Come here at the deep end!”

“I think I’m okay here,” Tony replies.

“Suit yourself, stay at the kiddie-zone,” Peter very maturely, blows a raspberry before diving back underwater, only to pop up a few feet in front of Tony. “Hi.”

“Hello,” Tony snorts. “Wow, you really love the pool, huh?”

“Yeah, I used to love swimming at school but then I had to stop when I got abs,” he shrugs, pushing his wet hair back which looks even curlier now.

“Well, good thing I’ve got a pool here at your service whenever you want,” Tony says. “No really, you can invite your nerdy friends too, Fred and the scary one.”

Peter laughs in amusement, not even bothering to correct him. This was just another quirk Tony had developed in his quest of trying to annoy Peter at any given moment. Instead, he says, “Her name is Michelle, you know. But we call her MJ.”

“Whatever,” Tony waves him off. “I’m happy to sponsor you kids for your little play dates.”

“I’m literally sixteen, Mr. Stark,” Peter decides to splash Tony with some water.

“Menace!” He gasps and immediately splashes more water at the boy. He can hear him squeal which brings him satisfaction and another wave of chlorinated water in his hair. He can’t believe it; he’s having a _water-fight_ with his sixteen-year-old mentee. But he’s laughing freely as he sends splash after splash at Peter, calling him various PG-13 swears.

And then suddenly, it’s not so fun anymore. The cold water is all over his face, in his mouth and his nose. His eyes are screwed shut and he forces himself to not inhale as they dunk his head underwater again. The cold water that surrounds him is no longer pleasant as it settles in his bones, reminding him of that fucking cave.

Tony is not laughing anymore, just quivering as he tries to get a lungful of air. At some point, Peter stops throwing water at his face but it’s too late as his knees buckle. He finds water surrounding him. Fuck, he can’t _breathe_. He’s going to drown and he’s never going to get out of this cave. He’s never going to see Pepper; he’s never going to–

Tony gasps as he feels himself emerge from underwater. A strong pair of arms are wrapped around him as he’s pulled out from the pool. He’s suddenly laying on his back, coughing and gulping air – letting it fill his lungs. When he opens his eyes, he’s looking up at the purple-orange sky above him.

He’s definitely not in that cave.

Then, a very concerned looking face pops into his field of vision, dripping water down on him. It takes a second for Tony to realise that Peter is talking. He’s apologizing.

Tony is still breathing heavily as he forces himself to sit up.

“G-Get me, a, a, um, a towel,” he manages to say. He needs to stop feeling cold. Peter immediately springs to his feet and gets one of the towels from a rack behind them. He tries to wrap it around Tony’s shoulders but Tony grabs it out of his hands so he can bury his face in it.

Tony stays like that for a bit, just taking deep breaths before wiping his face and then his neck. In and out. His name is Tony Stark and he is not in that Afghanistan cave. He’s in New York City with his kid, Peter Parker. The sun’s setting and he realises Peter has a birthmark on his shoulder which he hasn’t noticed before. Although, he doesn’t catch Peter retreat when he finds Tony staring.

Feeling grounded enough, Tony stands up and wraps the towel around his waist. He feels equal parts of exhausted and embarrassed, and he can’t bring himself to meet Peter’s eyes.

“I’m gonna go change, you can go back to swimming,” he rushes out quickly. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

And with that, he heads to take a hot shower so he can get some warmth back in his body, although he doesn’t stay for long because he can’t bring himself to stand under the water for any longer than he has to. After drying off, he changes into sweatpants and an old band shirt.

When he walks out, he finds Peter sitting on the couch, his head hanging low. He seems to have showered and changed his clothes too. Tony frowns at that and says, “Don’t let me ruin your fun, you can still swim around, kid.”

The sun has set now and the room feels a lot duller for some reason. The automated lights haven’t turned on yet and the room is filled with that weird post-sunset blue light.

When Peter looks up, Tony can see the guilt on his face as he speaks in a strained voice, “Mr. Stark, I’m _so sorry_.”

“Pete,” he shakes his head and Peter falls quiet even though Tony knows he’s probably exploding with more apologies, beating himself down no doubt.

Tony sits down next to Peter and looks down at his hands. He doesn’t know what to do now. Where can he possibly go now with this? He can’t exactly brush this whole thing off with a joke.

“When I was in Afghanistan, they wanted me to build them this missile,” he finds himself saying. “The Jericho, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. But I refused and well, they tortured me for it. They couldn’t pull my fingernails out or whatever because they needed me alive and _well-enough_ to actually work. So, they used water.”

“It’s not your fault, Peter. You didn’t know,” Tony says and looks up to smile weakly at the boy. “I’m just… It’s not my fault, either. It’s their fault for doing this to me, okay?”

“Okay,” Peter says in a small voice.

“I feel embarrassed now,” Tony tries to laugh but it sounds a little painful so he stops. “You shouldn’t have seen me like that, I’m supposed to be invincible after all, huh? I swear I haven’t had a panic attack in so long and it just has to happen in front of you.”

Peter stays quiet which is very uncharacteristic of him. Tony groans. He really fucked this up, huh? He was supposed to bond with Peter and have a good time today, not unload his baggage onto the kid. He feels so _vulnerable._

When Tony opens his mouth to say something (an ill-timed joke), Peter pulls him into a bone-crushing hug. Tony sniffs and thinks if he should make a joke about them ‘being there yet’ (yet _another_ ill-timed joke). But instead, he hugs him back, leaning into Peter's embrace, letting out a breath he had been holding in.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that, Mr. Stark,” Peter mumbles and Tony can feel his damp hair curl up against his bare neck.

“I’m sorry too, kid,” Tony mumbles and lets the kid pull away first. “But you don’t have to worry about me, Pete. I’ve got a therapist and everything to help, okay?”

Peter nods and they stay silent for a while.

Then, Peter says, “I get them too.”

It’s spoken like a shameful secret.

“It’s… No one really knows about it, I mean I guess May knows because she can hear the nightmares sometimes,” Peter says in a small voice. “It’s um, well. You remember when I fought that Vulture guy, right? Well, he dropped a building on me and I was stuck under all this concrete. It was– I thought I was going to die, Mr. Stark.”

Tony feels his throat tighten painfully and he has to resist the urge to fly to the prison holding Tooms just so he can beat him to death.

“But I got away, obviously. I just got super claustrophobic after that and sometimes I dream about it too,” Peter admits.

Tony opens his mouth to say how sorry he is that he wasn’t there for Peter. He wants to say just how bad he feels because he doesn’t know if he could’ve lived with himself if Peter had died that night just because Tony had taken away the suit from him.

But then Peter speaks up, “Don’t apologize, Mr. Stark. It’s their fault, remember?”

“Yeah, it is,” Tony smiles and he feels so goddamn proud of his kid. He’s so much more mature than Tony ever was. This time Tony’s the one pulling him into a hug, running his hand down Peter’s back to comfort him.

“I don’t know what to do about it, Mr. Stark,” Peter mumbles into Tony’s shoulder. He sounds like a scared little kid, not a sassy sixteen-year-old with a habit of flinging himself into danger at every given moment.

“Well, only one of two things can happen,” Tony says. “It either gets better or it gets worse if you leave it alone; like I did. For me, it got really bad and… well, I couldn’t go a single day without having at least two panic attacks.”

Peter stays silent. He definitely doesn’t want that to happen to him.

“Then, I got therapy,” Tony admits. “At first, I hated it. How was this random person going to fix me up? When I see a problem, I fix it with logic and science. There’s no logic to _feelings,_ ” he practically gags at the word. “I was so mad that this ‘bachelor’s degree’ was going to tell me what thoughts mean what feelings and that, I was actually expected to listen to that nonsense.”

Peter audibly winces at that. Tony sighs, “I know, I was a real asshole about it. But I went anyway because I had hit rock bottom. And, well, I realised that therapy was just - work. There was no easy fix and I was just learning how to lay bricks, hoping one day I’d end up with a wall. It’s just… hard work, you know?”

“Well, anyway,” Tony clears his throat, god he sounds so _cheesy_ , “it helped me so much, Pete. Helped me sleep.”

There’s another beat of silence and Peter finally speaks up, “Do you still go, Mr. Stark?”

“Now and then,” Tony shrugs. “You need it less as time goes on and the better you get.”

Peter seems to be satisfied with that. He enjoys Tony’s warmth for a few more seconds before pulling away. He takes a deep breath to compose himself and then smiles timidly, “I think I should talk to May about it. I know it’ll be a little expensive but I’m sure Mr. Delmar would give me something to do at the shop. I… I wanna make this work.”

“Of course, kiddo,” Tony says. He knows that if he offers to pay for it, he will be shot down immediately so he doesn’t even bother. “If you need anything else, you know the number.”

Peter takes him seriously for once and Tony can tell, as he nods and smiles a little wider.

The following week, Tony informs Peter that the internship provides him free counselling as part of his health care, even adding a little rant about how stupid it was of him for not having that included already with the physical care (“Honestly, this is why I should leave this stuff to Pepper!”). Peter knows exactly what he’s up to but for once, he graciously accepts with a ‘thank you, Mr. Stark’.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you guys so much for all the sweet comments on the last chapter. it fills my lungs with fresh clean crisp air and i love u all thank u i will cry

After his initial victory, Tony reaches a bit of a plateau.

He doesn’t understand _why_. He knows exactly what Peter has on his mind for once and, every single time he thinks Peter will come out to him, the kid surprises him with something stupider and stupider (“Mr. Stark, I have to tell you something. I think Dr. Banner is now my favourite avenger.” … “Menace.”).

At this point, Tony thinks the kid is teasing him knowingly.

Regardless, he tries his best to create the circumstances needed to help Peter feel more comfortable and vulnerable, hoping that the kid will just tell him. He’s so damn tired of stagnating at seven. So much so that he’s actually glad when Pepper dumps a shit-ton of work on him just so he can have something else consuming all his time.

Pepper thinks he’s being ridiculous. She says that Tony can’t possibly expect Peter to just tell him everything and anything about him within one weekend. He hates that she’s right.

Thank god for never-ending Stark Industries' work, otherwise he would’ve drowned in his thoughts and suffocated to his tragic death. He almost even forgets about Peter and his stupid scale. Sure, he still keeps tabs on the kid and they hang out on the weekends but, Tony is just busier during it. Although, when Peter does start therapy, they celebrate by getting frozen yogurt in the city that Peter claims is _sooo_ _much better than ice cream, Mr. Stark!_ _You get to pick infinite toppings too!_

Tony disrespectfully disagrees.

Another month passes and Tony has accepted his fate as being an underwhelming seven all his life.

That changes one fine day when they’re sitting in the lab. Tony’s working on a new software update for the Stark Phone while he lets Peter take apart his Mark 37 propulsors. A totally normal day.

“This is so annoying, why did you build it like this?” Peter grumbles under his breath as he wipes his forehead, leaving a large grease mark across it.

Tony just chuckles across the room.

“Don’t laugh! Mark 37 was a piece of shit and we both know it,” Peter announces.

“Hey, come on, now just because it’s no Mark 42 doesn’t mean it’s bad,” Tony says. Peter seems to be more annoyed than usual today which is very odd for him. “Remember this was the suit that helped me figure out that soft landing problem.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Peter rolls his eyes but doesn’t take his gaze off the machinery in his hands.

There’s a beat. All that can be heard is the metallic sound of Peter tinkering and, the tapping of Tony’s fingers against his glass keyboard.

“Fuck!” Peter screams suddenly before dropping the partially dismantled propulsor onto his desk.

Tony’s so startled that he actually jumps in his seat.

“Jesus Christ, kid! I thought we discussed that I have a weak heart,” he cries, dramatically placing one hand over his chest.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stark, but this is _bullshit!”_ Peter laments as he kicks himself away from the desk, letting his chair spin weakly a couple of times on the little wheels.

“I almost said ‘language’, can you believe it?” Tony shakes his head and gets up to walk over to Peter to see what’s gotten the boy so worked up. He looks down and sees dents in the shape of fingers pressed into the red metal. His eyes widen.

Of course, Tony knows Peter’s strong. They’ve even done tests to figure out just _how_ strong Peter is. But seeing this shakes him a little. He runs his fingers over the dents and sighs, “Okay, tell me what’s up with you today?”

When Peter opens his mouth, Tony immediately interrupts, “And I don’t wanna hear ‘it’s nothing’.”

Peter shuts his mouth and looks down, hanging his head low. His unruly curls fall in front of his face and hide his eyes. For a second Tony thinks that Peter is going to lie to him but then the boy sighs in defeat.

He mumbles incoherently.

“Sorry, what was that?”

“W-We’re behind on rent. Like wayyy behind and, well, the landlord is being a dick,” Peter speaks up.

Tony is speechless. He had no idea what to say, for once in his life. He has literally never had that problem and he’s scared that he might say something totally insensitive and offend Peter.

“The old landlord was so sweet,” Peter elaborates. “When Uncle Ben… When _whatever_ happened, she had been so understanding, you know? She let us take our time and never threatened to kick us out like this douchebag is now.”

“Where’d the old landlord go?” Tony asks, thinking that that’s a pretty safe question to being with.

“I dunno,” Peter shrugs and leans back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling. Tony can’t read his expression which is shocking because the kid’s always been an open book. “I think she ran into some trouble and sold the entire building to this guy, and of course the first thing he did was increase the rent by, well, a lot.”

“That… sucks,” Tony settles on. Peter only snorts.

The thing is, Tony has always known that the Parkers aren't exactly rich but he didn’t think the condition was this dire. He never in a million years, thought that Peter might be on the verge of being kicked out.

“May’s working _three_ jobs now, which is insane,” Peter mumbles, bringing his hands up to rub his eyes with his palms harshly. “I got a job too, which she doesn’t know about, by the way, to help out. She was super against the idea because she says I don’t need extra work on top of school and Spider-Man.”

“She’s right,” Tony says immediately.

“I know, but what else can I do, Mr. Stark?” Peter sighs. “Just sit back and watch while this asshole kicks us out of our _own_ home? If we move into a smaller place, it’ll destroy May, Mr. Stark. The apartment is the only place that’s – that’s stayed the same. Through everything. It’s – No matter what, it’s always been our home, and I am not letting him kick us out.”

Tony watches as the kid glares daggers into the ceiling, and he’s never seen him this vicious.

He wonders if he should give Peter the don’t-murder-people-even-though-you-want-to-because-it’s-wrong talk.

“You know you could always take my help,” Tony hesitates a little because he doesn’t want to make this any worse.

Peter immediately bolts upright and looks into Tony’s eyes, shaking his head vigorously, “No, no, no, absolutely not, Mr. Stark. You’ve already done _so much_ for me and, I just – I can’t take your money.”

“Kid, I’m literally a billionaire,” Tony tries to argue. “I’m not gonna miss it. Just take it, will you? God knows you deserve it.”

“Mr. Stark, I really appreciate it–”

“Great! Fri, let’s get May’s wire info and we can–”

“–but I’m not taking your money. I’m not some– some fucking charity case, okay?” Peter frowns, looking more and more annoyed by the second.

“Peter, listen,” Tony tries. It’s useless.

“No!” Peter groans. “God, I shouldn’t have brought this up, this was a mistake. As if _you_ would ever get it.”

Peter talks with so much poison in his voice that Tony doesn’t even recognise his own kid’s words anymore. He’s so taken aback that he doesn’t even protest as he watches Peter get up and gather his stuff, only to leave.

Even though the lab is still lively with the hum of machinery all around him, it’s never felt quieter.

Tony wants to reach out to Peter. He wants to call him up and say sorry till he’s out of breath. He wants to tell him that Peter isn’t a charity case and that Tony just wants to help him because he can’t bear to see him hurt.

But all he can manage is: “Fuck,” as he sits down in Peter’s chair and lets himself feel beaten down.

That night, Tony tells Pepper about the incident, maybe being a tad too dramatic about it. Pepper wants him to talk to Peter. As if that was ever going to happen.

Actually, Tony has a much better plan.

He’s going to pretend that this never happened and hope that this goes away on its own, thank you very much.

Tony ends up doing some totally legal research on the Parker’s financial state and, _god._ This is not good. Tony has no idea how May is possibly keeping them afloat. Tony briefly considers buying their apartment complex and be done with this landlord, but Pepper vetoes the idea. She says that will only drive Peter away which Tony definitely doesn’t want.

The rest of the week whenever he texts Peter, it’s a little awkward. He can feel the tension stick to him as he tries his best to maintain light-hearted banter that he always has. The stress clings to him, weighing him down and it only grows whenever he talks to Peter. By the time the weekend comes around, Tony is sure Peter’s going to cancel lab on him.

But, he doesn’t. He shows up and Tony had been so sure he would cancel that he hasn’t really planned anything for lab.

Turns out it’s okay because Peter has a lot of homework. Tony wonders if it’s because Peter’s job is eating up his time.

Tony pretends to work on some experimental web fluid all the while keeping an eye on his kid. Peter does look more tired than usual. He’s got purple dark circles and his left eye seems to be twitching. Tony debates whether he should mention it.

He gives in.

“You look tired, Pete,” he says, his voice gentle and careful.

“Don’t start,” comes the immediate response.

“I’m just worried, okay?” Tony admits through gritted teeth. Look at him. Actually, admitting to caring about people rather than pushing them away.

“I’m sure you are,” Peter rolls his eyes and looks up at him. “But I’m fine, Mr. Stark.”

Tony chews on his bottom lip as he lets his eyes do one more scan over Peter.

“Well, I disagree,” he says.

“Then let’s agree to disagree.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

God, this is _painful_.

Tony hears Peter sigh in defeat.

“I’m just stressed,” Peter admits.

“Yeah, no shit,” Tony huffs.

“Don’t say it like– whatever,” Peter cuts himself off and Tony decides he’s had enough.

“Look, Peter… I’m sorry,” he says finally. “I’m sorry about last week, I was being too– I don’t wanna intrude and be all up in your face about things. I just– I just didn’t get what was so bad about wanting to help you. But I don’t want to make you feel any lesser or – or like some sort of charity case I need to take care of.”

Peter blinks at him. Then, he sighs, “It’s okay. I’m so sick of being mad at you, can we put this behind us?”

Tony agrees. And just like that, they find their rhythm again. Easy-peasy.

Except, it’s not. Tony can’t stop thinking about the amount of stress Peter is under. It’s a lot harder to laugh at his stupid jokes and call him a menace when he can see the weight of the world sagging his kid’s shoulders. His eyes always have bags under them now and he zones out quite a lot. It’s hard to ignore all that.

Not just that, Tony starts to notice many more things. How Peter’s sneakers are so worn out (Tony’s surprised the kid doesn’t put duct tape on them to hold them together), how his jacket has holes in it, how all his endearingly dorky shirts are washed out.

Tony can’t just sit back and do nothing.

That’s when he forms an ingenious plan. And this time he’s confident that this is going to work.

Tony starts off slow. He buys a new pair of sneakers in Peter's size. He knows that he can’t just gift them to Peter, otherwise Peter’s going to be onto his shit. Thank god he has a plan.

“Can you take these sneakers off my hands, kid? My stylist accidently ordered the wrong size and now I’m stuck with them,” Tony casually brings up in lab one day.

“Really?” Peter raises an eyebrow sceptically at Tony.

“Well it’s either you or the trash,” Tony shrugs nonchalantly. That seems to do the trick because Peter walks home with a new pair of sneakers.

Tony feels very proud of himself at that. The coming few weeks Tony’s stylist proceeds to mess up a couple more times and Peter goes home with a new jacket, a couple of new shirts and a new pair of jeans.

“Your stylist seems to be styling me at this point,” Peter points out one day, narrowing his eyes at the jumper Tony is offering him. They’re exactly in his size. Not to mention, they’re in the kind of style Peter wears and it’s definitely not something Tony would ever wear.

“Yeah, maybe I should fire him,” Tony grins.

This goes on for a bit before Tony decides that this is not enough. It’s time for stage two.

Tony shows up at Peter’s house one day, claiming that _gosh, it’s been too long since I’ve seen Aunt Hottie!_ She’s off at one of her shifts and Peter informs him that it’s unlikely they’ll see her before midnight.

Regardless, Tony decides to stay, claiming he wouldn’t want to waste his trip by leaving so soon. Peter lets him in and Tony does a quick once over of the apartment. It looks a lot different now, more unkempt and run-down. 

They end up just hanging out the rest of the day and Peter teaches him how to make mac and cheese which he claims is the only thing he knows how to cook. Turns out to be a good thing too because May ends up coming home early with food cooked for her.

They have dinner together and Tony is charming as always although May seems tired. He really can’t blame her.

The next day, Peter finds almost 20 one-hundred-dollar bills all over the house. Under the fridge, between the couch cushions, in their little basket filled with keys.

Needless to say, Peter’s absolutely furious as he calls Tony, not even caring that his mentor might be in an important meeting or something. As soon as he voices his concerns, he’s cut off by Tony’s laughter.

“Kid, do you really think I carry cash around with me? Hundred bucks is spare change and you know I’m better than that.”

And that’s that. Peter doesn’t argue with Tony despite the fact that he knows Tony’s lying. He doesn’t even argue when Tony decides to show up at his place at least once a week, leaving behind a trail of bills, only to then pretend that it wasn’t him. He even gets creative as he throws in an occasional gift card.

As time goes on, things finally start to look up. May gets a hefty pay raise at the nursing job which helps her reduce her workload down to two jobs. Peter no longer needs to keep his job at the deli and they can finally pay rent. The landlord doesn’t particularly like them still but at least they’re not being kicked out.

Now it was time for the last stage of Tony’s plan.

They’re working on fixing Peter’s jammed web-shooters; one is in Peter’s hand and the other in Tony’s as they work together in harmony. That’s when Tony speaks up, “You know, I’ve been thinking.”

“Oh no,” Peter says without a beat of hesitation.

“Shut up,” Tony rolls his eyes. “No, I really have been thinking. About your – whatchamacallit – internship.”

“What about it?” Peter’s eyes flick up at Tony briefly before focusing back at the little chamber that holds his web fluid. Ah-ha! It’s all clogged up with the older formula. Who knew the answer was just cleaning it out once in a while?

“You know how I included health insurance as part of it?” Tony says as he sets down the small device. Peter only nods in response as Tony continues, “Well, I was just thinking how odd it is that a Stark Industries internship comes with health insurance but for some reason, is not paid.”

“Mr. Stark–”

“What’re people going to say when they find out? It’s going to be a PR nightmare, I’m telling you. I need to think about the company,” he says. “I think it’s time I stop paying you in exposure. You do a lot of important work here and I think you should get what you deserve in return.”

Peter’s eyes are trained on Tony as he blinks at him, trying to process what’s being said. Tony just waits patiently for Peter to say something.

“You don’t have to do this,” Peter settles on. “You already helped us save the apartment, this is too much.”

“First of all, I have no idea what you’re talking about. If I wanted to save your apartment, I would’ve bought the thing and kicked your stupid landlord to the curb. We both know that,” he says. “Secondly, of course, I don’t _have_ to do it. I’m Tony Stark, I don’t do anything I don’t want to.”

“Unless Pepper tells you to,” Peter quips, a small smile forming on his face.

“Unless Pepper tells me to,” Tony chuckles in agreement. Then, he smiles at the kid, “You deserve this, Peter. I’m paying you for the work you’re doing here, that’s all.”

A wider smile breaks out on Peter’s face as he looks at Tony. He wants to thank him. He wants to get on his damn knees and thank him till his mouth runs dry. He wants to tell him how grateful he is that they don’t have to move out because the apartment has so many memories of Ben. If he had to say goodbye to the little stain on the ceiling from when Ben had flipped a pancake into it, or the hole in the wall from when they had tried to nail in the family photo, or the stains on the carpet from when he had spilled marina on it – Peter can’t even imagine himself going through with it.

He wants to say all that and so much more, but all he can manage is: “Thank you, Mr. Stark.” Because he’s sure that Tony already knows.

“Don’t mention it, kid,” Tony smiles warmly.

And just like that, they go back to work. Peter’s chest feels less constricted and a smile dances on his lips. When Peter looks up at Tony to show him that he has figured out the problem with his web-shooters, he sees that the man is smiling too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> clearly this chap was heavily inspired from this one tumblr post but for the life of me, i cant find it anywhere. if anyone has the link or something, pls tell me and ill put it up here


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chap is the most personal to me and also my favourite. have care with how you read it.
> 
> and once again, thank you for all your sweet comments forever curing my depression

By the time winter arrives Tony decides that he’s officially an eight. He’s still too stubborn to give himself a nine even though he does technically know about Peter’s sexuality. At this point, Peter is even making jokes about liking boys around him. But he decides it still doesn’t count because Peter hasn’t told him himself.

Regardless, he decides to put all of this behind him because he’s never felt this close to Peter. Everything is the same when it comes to their routine. They regularly hang out at the lab and have movie nights after. But there’s a certain ease now. Tony feels less guarded around Peter and he knows the feeling is mutual.

Therapy seems to be helping Peter too because he looks more well-rested these days. For once it doesn’t look like the kid is going to explode with everything that he has bottled up inside him. Not just that but he willingly opens up to Tony about things. Things that Tony already knew for sure but Peter talks to him about it because he knows that sharing will make the burden lighter.

Peter tells him about how Ben died one night. Tony knows the official story; theft gone wrong, one person killed and two injured. What he hadn’t known was that Peter had been present at that time. He hadn’t known that Peter had his powers when Ben died and carried the guilt of not doing anything to this day.

Tony definitely didn’t know that Peter had to hear his uncle’s heart stop beating as he waited for the ambulance to get there.

Tony opens up slightly too. He talks about how Pepper dragged him to therapy alongside Rhodey after the Mandarin fiasco. He even manages to talk about how his parents had died and how he’d gone on a bender after. Pepper says that this is good; being vulnerable will help Peter feel safe enough to be vulnerable too.

What seals the deal on their closeness is when Peter invites Tony to his school when they have a science fair. Tony feels like a proud dad as he dresses down and shows up at Peter’s school in disguise (“Mr. Stark, I don’t want the judges to be biased if they know I’m associated with you!”).

He has to physically restrain himself from getting up and cheering for his kid when he unsurprisingly wins first place. It’s a new adhesive patch derived from Peter’s web fluid formula that can be used by paramedics to plug heavily bleeding wounds. Not just that but it can also be used as an alternative to stitches. It comes as a surprise to absolutely no one when the very next day Stark Industries announces that they will be funding and undertaking the project for further research and development.

Everything is so good that Tony half expects his fairy godmother to show up and tell him he’s going to live happily ever after.

That’s until one day when he gets a call from Peter on a Friday night at 3 am.

The thing about Peter Parker is that he never really asks for help. Tony has developed his own Spidey-sense of sorts to guess if something's wrong; Rhodey and Pepper, those imbeciles, have dubbed it as his dad-sense. So, when Tony receives that phone call, at this house no less, his heart drops down to his damn shoes. God, if Peter is actually calling him for help, he might as well be done for.

“Mr. Stark–”

“Friday, read vitals,” he says immediately, not even bothering to hear any sort of excuse Peter might have come up with.

“Mr. Parker’s heart rate is slightly elevated but other than that, vitals appear to be normal,” she says after a heartbeat.

“Elevated?” Tony breathes, already panicking as he gets out of bed as quietly as he can, only to earn a sleepy groan from Pepper. “Jesus Christ, are you on cocaine?”

“Oh my god,” comes a shaky laugh on Peter’s end. He sounds exasperated, but in a fond way and Tony can practically hear him rolling his eyes. “I’m not on _cocaine_ , Mr. Stark. I wouldn’t even know where to buy it from.”

“Good, that’s exactly how it should be,” Tony sighs in relief as he makes his way to the hallway so he can talk to Peter without disturbing his fiancé. Despite Peter’s light-hearted words, Tony can tell something is weighing the kid down. He knows something is up _for sure._ Why else would Peter call him? He’s the same kid who once nearly bled out in front of the Black Widow the first time he met her just because he was trying to be polite by not mentioning his stab wound.

“If you’re not on cocaine or dying, why’d you call?” Tony asks, genuinely puzzled.

“Technically, we’re all dying, Mr. Stark,” Peter chuckles dryly. Oh god, something is definitely wrong. Tony doesn’t say anything as he waits for Peter to give him a proper answer. 

“I… wanted to talk to you,” Peter settles on.

Tony’s silent for a moment.

“Talk to me?” he parrots. “About what?”

“Just wanted to talk to you, you know, in general,” Peter’s voice sounds more drawn back now than just a moment before – like he’s retreating into himself. “I mean, how we always do when we hang out and stuff. In lab. The tower, y’know?”

“It’s three in the morning, kid,” Tony frowns. He doesn’t sound mad about it, just very concerned.

“God, you’re right,” Peter sighs, and Tony prepares himself for the inevitable rambling. “I don’t know what I was thinking, you were probably asleep. I’m so sorry for waking you up, Mr. Stark, you should go back to bed now. I know you don’t get enough sleep. I’ll just go now and–”

“Peter!” Tony cuts him off. “Talking that fast you might as well be on cocaine.”

He takes a moment to compose himself, walking down to the living room so he can settle down on the couch. He wonders if he should get up and make himself some tea to keep him company.

“Anyways, I’m up now so you might as well entertain me because god knows I’m not gonna fall asleep any time soon,” he says before Peter can apologize any further. “So, tell me, what are the big plans for the weekend? Bet you’re dying for some stress relief after those lab exams this week.”

“Oh, you know me, Mr. Stark; parties, alcohol and boys. Maybe some drugs. Teenage stuff. Not something an old man like yourself is gonna get,” Peter quips.

“Uh-huh,” Tony smiles a little. “Does the party entail you and your buddy Ted re-watching the entirety of the Twilight series because, and I quote, ‘you didn’t appreciate the depth and intricacies of Robert Pattinson’s ass as children’?”

“You _do_ know me,” Peter laughs and it doesn’t sound so forced anymore. 

They’re quiet for a moment when Peter speaks up, his voice a little raw, “Okay, so maybe I’m not okay at this current moment.”

“Yeah?” Tony is shocked to hear himself sound so gentle. “Wanna tell me what’s up?”

“It’s kind of difficult to explain,” Peter sighs. “It’s just that – well, my therapist told me whenever I was feeling like _this_ , I should try to distract myself by doing something nice. Something positive. So, I tried watching that Studio Ghibli movie, _My Neighbour Totoro._ Great movie, but it didn’t work. Then, I was thinking about what else makes me feel good, and I thought about spending time with you, so – yeah. That’s why I called. Thought, maybe talking to you will make me feel better.”

At first, Tony wants to gush about how much those words make his chest tight with so much love he might explode. He wants to tell him how proud he is that Peter is actually listening to his therapist and not tyrannising himself as he usually does. But he restrains himself.

“Wise decision, kid,” he says instead, thinking back to how he had always hated it whenever people made a big deal about these things with him. “What’s on your mind?”

“I have this… problem,” Peter seems to hesitate. “Kind of a – um, coping mechanism that I struggle with. And you’re gonna think it’s super weird and gross but, uh – I don’t know, okay. I don’t even know if I should bring this up.”

Tony can practically hear the boy’s exasperation as he struggles to open up. Tony lets out a small laugh, “Kid, I used to do every drug under the sun. I really don’t think anything you’re ever going to say will gross or weird me out.”

Peter laughs humourlessly at that and everything is silent again. It’s so painful and Tony doesn’t like it one bit. He wants to ramble about unimportant nonsense to fill the space, much like Peter does, but he stops himself. He wants to give Peter a chance to open up.

And just when Tony thinks he going to lose his composure, Peter says in a monotone voice, “Do you know what self-harm is?”

All the blood in his body runs cold.

“Yeah,” he says, sounding a little breathless to his own ears.

“Yeah so, um – yeah. It’s that,” Peter sounds breathless too.

Tony thinks about what to say for what seems like hours but in reality, is probably a second. And for once, his overcrowded mind which is always buzzing with thoughts is silent. He doesn’t know what to say to his kid who had just admitted to going through something so horrible.

Tony wants to ask him how long has that been a thing. He wants to express just how shitty he thinks this is, how Peter is the last person in the world to deserve this. He wants to tell him that he doesn’t think this is weird or gross and that he loves him all the same.

But all he can manage is: “Can I come over?”

Peter seems to be taken aback as he hesitates, “Uh sure.”

“Okay, I’ll be there in ten,” and with that, he hangs up.

Tony doesn’t know what his plan is, honestly. He just suits up, not even bothering to change out of his sweatpants, and makes a beeline to Queens, stopping at a 7-Eleven briefly to pick up a tub of ice cream. It’s Neapolitan – way too sweet for Tony and way too sugary for the kid, but it’s better than anything else they have.

Tony reaches the apartment in record time after that where he finds Peter sitting on the roof, at the very edge too. It doesn’t exactly soothe his nerves but he simply flies over, hovering in front of the kid. Peter’s dressed in pyjamas and a hoodie zipped all the way up to keep the cold away, although Tony doubts it’s doing that.

Peter’s looking up at him expectantly and all Tony has to offer is a tub of shitty ice cream. God, the kid at least deserves Ben and Jerry’s. Tony hands it to him regardless and speaks through the speakers of his suit, “God knows I shouldn’t give you any more sugar, but ice cream is customary for times like this.”

“Thanks,” Peter says as he takes the tub. “I don’t suppose you brought a spoon with you?”

“Well, shit.”

Tony sits down next to Peter and the nanites shrink, crawling back into their housing unit. The suit is a prototype, not really combat-ready; but because of the nanotech, it’s the lightest and therefore the fastest.

“Maybe I can get the nanites to form a spoon?” Tony says as he immediately pulls his phone out of his pocket to punch in some commands. A little wave of nanites run down his arm and take shape of a sleek looking spoon.

“That’s pretty gross, Mr. Stark,” Peter smiles dryly as he takes the spoon anyway. He pops the tub open and digs in like he hasn’t eaten in days.

“I don’t have cooties, kid,” Tony replies, watching Peter devour another bite of that garbage.

“Yeah but this stuff is around chemicals in the lab,” Peter mumbles around a mouthful, “it’s probably covered in a layer of grease and your germs.”

“I once saw you eat a sandwich ten seconds after you dropped it in web fluid.”

“Fair.”

They sit in silence. Well, as silent as New York lets it be. It’s awful and deafening, and Tony is desperately racking his brain for something to say. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. He has no idea how to even begin to help this kid– _his kid –_ at all. He doesn’t know if he should be the one to bring it up. But then again, Peter was the one who had brought it up in the first place, so clearly, he wanted to talk, right?

Just as Tony is about to overthink himself to death, Peter sighs, “You didn’t have to do this.”

“I know, kid,” Tony says immediately, turning to look at him. “But I wanted to.”

“I don’t know about that,” Peter huffs, ducking his head to avoid Tony’s gaze. Tony just raises an eyebrow at him and he knows Peter sees it in his periphery. And Peter knows that Tony knows. So, he just groans and further explains, “Do you have any idea how annoying I sound when I talk about this shit? Why would anyone want to listen to me whine about how hard my life is? Oh! Look at me! Look at all the problems I’ve created for myself! Don’t you feel _sorry_ for me?”

Peter spits words like its venom but Tony just lets him continue, “I mean, do you really want to be disturbed in the middle of the night by some annoying kid? Do you want to be flying over to said kid’s house just because he’s sad at 3 am when, I don’t know, you could be getting your beauty sleep? Do you really wanna listen to me babble about how stupid I am for even– for even, having this sort of problem in my life?”

“I want to if it is you, Peter.”

Tony surprises himself with how warm he sounds.

That’s what makes Peter lookup. And that’s also what makes Peter break.

Peter just stares at Tony for a second, his eyes brimming with tears. He sets the half-empty tub of ice cream down to one side so he can scoot closer and hug Tony. He practically crushes him as he buries his face in Tony’s chest, wrapping his arms around his torso.

Tony stays frozen until he hears a sob. Immediately he bundles the kid up in his arms, one hand in his hair and the other gently smoothing down his back. Peter’s sobbing so violently that Tony can feel it reverberate through his own bones. It’s a sickly noise. His lungs wheezing painfully as he struggles to get air into them.

“It’s okay, Pete. I’ve got you.”

Tony’s voice sounds so heavy as he repeats comforting words – well, at least he thinks they’re comforting. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, he has never really had to console a crying– no, _hysterically sobbing_ teenager before. But he does his best, holding him close and determined not to let go first.

Even when Peter’s sobs die down to sniffles, he doesn’t pull away. Tony scratches gently at his scalp and soothes, “You’re okay, kid. I know I don’t know how to talk about this shit, and I’m really not the best for this kind of situation. But, I’m here to listen to you, okay? I won’t ever think differently of you because as much as I deny it, you’re _my_ kid. And… I love you, okay?”

Peter mumbles incoherently into Tony’s shirt.

“What’s that, kid?” Tony asks and moves back just a little so Peter can peer up at him; he’s still not letting go of him fully.

Peter looks at him with watery eyes and a blotchy face. It breaks Tony’s heart into tiny little pieces because the kid just doesn’t deserve to look this beaten down. It’s worse than watching him hurt after a stab wound or a gunshot wound because Tony knows he can fix them up. He knows they will heal as morning comes.

But this? God, it takes years.

Despite his predicament, Peter offers Tony a small smile and speaks up, “FRIDAY, I hope you recorded that.”

“You can always depend on me, Peter,” she says from inside Tony’s pocket.

“You little shit,” Tony chuckles fondly, but there’s no bite in his words.

Peter finally pulls away and drags the sleeves of his hoodie down further so he can wipe his tears away. It leaves his eyes looking even redder than before but he looks relieved, so Tony takes it as a win for now.

“That was embarrassing,” Peter mumbles. His voice sounds gravelly and nasally from all that crying.

“Kid, you don’t know the kind of shit I’ve pulled,” Tony says and pats Peter on the back.

“Like what?” Peter glances at him sideways with a little smirk.

Tony rolls his eyes, “I’m not spilling my dirty secrets while I’m sober.”

“That’s a shame, Ned would have appreciated it.”

They’re thrust back into silence. But it’s not like before. It’s not begging to be filled. They just exist in each other’s presence and breathe. Just for a little bit, they’re at peace.

“I think I was 11 when it first happened,” Peter says as he leans in to Tony’s side completely. Tony just stays silent and wraps an arm around his shoulders to steady him.

“I was too young and, I didn’t know what I was doing, really,” Peter continues. “Whatever, it freaked me out so much afterwards that I never did it again. Okay, that’s a lie – I did do it, but it wasn’t a regular thing, you know? Well, that was until Ben died. It kinda, um, it got worse after that. I was Spider-Man too, so I healed super quick and there was no evidence. No one noticed.

“I started feeling like I was invincible, you know? No cut was too deep because it was just going to heal anyway, right? And nothing scarred too bad. I didn’t ever need to – I don’t know – go to the hospital or anything, but it was really bad for me, Mr. Stark. It put me in a really awful place. I guess I just underestimated how much it would affect me mentally, y’know?”

Tony just nods in response. He looks down at Peter whose eyes are fixated on the sky. Tony follows his gaze and notes that there are no stars, and that makes him feel a little hollow.

“I don’t even know why I do it,” Peter sighs, finally shutting his eyes. “It’s not like it makes me feel good. It hurts. I mean, obviously it hurts. I’m–I’m not even breaking down when I do it. It just became _routine_ to me, like having breakfast. Just something I have to do to get through every day.

“Maybe it’s because I feel like I need to be hurt. Maybe it’s because I want some control. Maybe it’s because I hate myself. But, Mr. Stark, I don’t care why anymore. I just wanna stop hurting. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of being like _this._ ”

Tony hears the words catch in Peter’s throat and he just holds him tighter in response, squeezing his arm, hoping that provides him with some semblance of comfort. Apparently, it does because the kid melts back into his grasp.

Peter sighs and finally turns his head to meet Tony’s eyes, “I’m four months clean, Mr. Stark. And I didn’t want to screw that up. That’s why I called you.”

“I’m glad you did, kid,” Tony responds. He wonders if he should make a joke to lighten up the situation like he always does because after all, Tony Stark doesn’t do _emotions._ But something tells him that that’s not what the kid needs.

“I’m really proud of you, Pete,” Tony says instead, bringing one hand to muse up his hair a little. For once, Peter doesn’t fuss over it and leans into the touch. “If I had had half the brain to ask for help and actually reach out to people who care about me when I was your age – god, even at _this age_ , I wouldn’t be quite as unstable, you know?”

“What is that age exactly, Mr. Stark?” Peter giggles like the petulant child that he is.

“Shut up, you little menace, I’m aging gracefully,” Tony chuckles. “Mind you, still voted as the sexiest man alive.”

“Still don’t know how you beat Thor,” Peter smiles and Tony can tell he feels lighter. That, in turn, makes his own chest feel lighter; it’s a wonderful cycle.

“I don’t think they consider him at all since he’s a literal god,” Tony shrugs. Peter scoffs and mumbles something about how that was bullshit.

“This has turned into soup,” Peter speaks up, grabbing the container of half-eaten ice cream. Tony peers to confirm that yes, it has indeed turned into soup. Despite his gripes, Peter grabs the spoon and mixes up all three flavours. Then, he picks up the tub with both hands and drinks straight from the container.

“So, this is what Aristippus meant by hedonism,” Tony grimaces as he watches Peter slurp up his gross cocktail of ice-creams.

When Peter sets down the empty container, he’s sporting a moustache which Tony reaches forward to wipe away instinctively (god, he’s turning into his mom). Peter just snickers, “Mr. Stark, that’s not the grossest thing you’ve seen me do.” 

“Unfortunately,” Tony replies as he wipes his hand on his pant leg.

They sit on the rooftop for a little while longer, talking and laughing at each other’s antics as if they’re back in the lab. Tony thinks that this is exactly what Peter’s therapist meant when she wanted him to distract himself.

But, soon enough Tony notices two things. Peter’s shivering and he looks somewhat sleepy.

“Come on, Pete, I think it’s time we get you to bed before Aunt Hottie thinks I’ve kidnapped you,” Tony says as he swings his legs across the ledge to stand up.

“You’re probably right,” Peter smiles a little sheepishly as he does the same. Tony follows Peter down the wobbly metal fire escape to their apartment where Peter crawls back in through the open window. Tony watches Peter kick his flip flops off and sit back down on the twin bed.

“I’m glad you called me, kid,” Tony says as he reaches for his suit, preparing to leave.

“Um, Mr. Stark?” Peter interrupts. He looks a little meek.

“Yeah?”

“Can you stay the night?” Peter blurts out which Tony knows is not a good sign because that only ever leads to rambling.

And Peter sure does know how to ramble.

“I mean, I know you coming here at this late just because I called is already a big deal in the first place. And I know you probably have to do super important things tomorrow and I shouldn’t keep you from them. So, like, I totally understand if you say no, it’s really no big deal. I mean, what am I even thinking? My bed is so tiny and it’s not like I have an air mattress or anything like that. Well, we used to have one but the neighbour’s cat snuck in and punctured it while Ned was over; made a big mess. It was crazy actually; May was so freaked out and–”

“I’ll stay,” Tony says simply, rolling his eyes. Somebody had to put the kid out of his misery.

Peter’s entire demeanour relaxes and he beams up at Tony who makes his way in.

It's an understatement to say that May is shocked in the morning when she walks into Peter’s room to wake him up for breakfast. It’s not every day you see your ward cuddled up with Iron Man, looking more peaceful than he has in a very long time. She watches the two of them fondly for a moment, letting her heart swell a little at the sheer cuteness in front of her.

Then, she turns around to go and set the table for three instead.

(Only after she takes a picture, of course.)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last chap! i had such a fun time writing this and it was extremely rewarding too. i cannot tell you how much your comments mean to me, especially on that last chapter which means so much to me.
> 
> anyways, this is it for now and if you have prompts or anything else you'd like to see from me, feel free to comment! or just comment in general, i love reading those

By the time Peter is finishing up the school year, Tony is very proud to say that he is in Peter’s circle of _people_.

It’s official now, he thinks. He’s told him he loves him; they frequently hang out for non-internship/ Spider-Man related reasons, and they have a support system. Tony can just _tell_ when something’s up and immediately be there for his kid. He knows just how to make Peter laugh when he’s down, when to just shut up and listen, and when to provide advice. And it goes both ways.

Who would have thought, really?

Tony gets teased endlessly by both Pepper and Rhodey about it but he doesn’t care. He feels so damn happy and for once, everything in his life is looking up. He’s engaged, co-parenting a spider-kid, helping Pepper run the company, and preparing endlessly for doomsday. It’s a lot better than what he’s been offered his entire life.

The Peter Ranking Scale doesn’t cross his mind as much anymore. It’s become obsolete. A fleeting thought rather than one that’s taken root into his conscious and subconscious mind.

Having a concrete numerical value assigned to his relationship with Peter doesn’t seem valid at all. Or at least he thinks so. He isn’t obsessed with it anymore and, he is more focused on just spending time with his kid.

It’s late in May and Tony hasn’t seen Peter in a while because the kid has been working himself to a bone studying for finals, giving said finals, handing in assignments, and also being Spider-Man. Tony had told him to take a break from hero work for a while but that went as well as you’d expect. The best that he can do now is occasionally help Peter out with math or physics when he inevitably texts him late at night; way too sleep-deprived and strung up on coffee.

Peter really reminds Tony of himself.

When the school year actually ends, Tony is the happiest one out of all of them. Tony lets the kid celebrate with his friends for exactly one day before whisking him away to the tower where he can have Peter all to himself.

They don’t even work in the lab or anything; just hang out, watch stupid TV shows _(‘Mr. Stark, Kitchen Nightmares is not stupid! I would die and kill for Gordon Ramsay.’)_ , and talk. Tony’s missed talking to his kid.

It takes them one whole week to finally make their way down to the lab so they can actually get to work.

“So, what’d you wanna work on, kid?” Tony claps loudly and the holograms whir back to life all around them. “Something easy so you can warm up your little brain? No doubt studying history has fried your synapses.”

“History wasn’t too bad,” Peter shrugs, dumping his bag down at his work station, “it’s geography that really makes me want to commit crimes. But, it’s fine, Mr. Stark. I don’t really mind working on any– Oh my god! What is that?”

Tony turns around to follow Peter’s gaze. He’s staring, open-mouthed at one of Tony’s suits that’s currently in one corner of the lab. It had been disassembled at the waist, the top half hanging up by strong wires extending from the ceiling, while the bottom half is laying on the table; Tony clearly had been messing with the inner mechanics of it.

Oh, and it is painted head to toe in the bisexual pride flag colours.

Tony laughs at Peter’s dumbfounded expression. He only walks towards the armour so he can sit down underneath the suit, digging back into it. He grunts a little as he works, “This is Mark 42. I never got around to actually fixing it so here we are.”

“Okay, first of all, I thought the Mark 42 got blown up in the Mandarin fiasco,” Peter huffs, wringing his hands as he walks closer to his mentor. “And second of all, why does it look like _that?”_

“It did get blown up, but what’d you think? I’d just leave Stark tech lying around for any Tom, Dick and Harry to get their grubby hands on? No thank you,” his voice sounds a little strained as he tries to yank out a stuck piece of metal. “I mean, I’m emotionally attached to the Mark 42, I had to bring him home.”

He yanks a little harder and he honestly has no idea what goes wrong because the next thing he knows he’s getting sprayed in the face with some good old grease. He curses and turns his head to one side so it hits his shoulder instead. He hears Peter snicker and he shoots him a glare.

Tony sighs and grabs a rag to wipe himself clean, “Anyway, now I’m altering the design a little; less combat, more eccentric. But, without further ado – Peter, meet Biron Man!”

Peter just gapes at him.

“You can’t be serious,” he breathes, stepping closer to get a better look. The bottom half of the armour that’s on the table has another tasteful design change that Peter initially failed to notice. In big bold letters, the words ‘Biron-Man’ are plastered across the buttocks of the armour.

“You know how I said that I have to come out to the media seemingly every year?” Tony says as he stands back up. “Well, I thought, it’s gonna be June soon so I better do something that they definitely won’t be able to forget.”

“Oh, it’s definitely gonna be memorable, let me tell you,” Peter finally lets himself laugh at how absurd this is.

“That’s the point, kid,” Tony chuckles and sits down at his desk. “Now, come help me with the repulsors, I want it to flash colours without compromising flight.”

Peter blinks, seemingly taking a second to process what’s going on in front of him before getting to work with Tony.

At the end of the day Tony asks Peter if he wants to come with him to pride. He doesn’t have to come as Peter Parker, just Spider-Man showing his support. After all, it’s his first pride. Not just Iron Man’s; Tony’s too.

Of course, Peter says yes.

Pride comes and Tony’s wearing his obnoxious armour, hiding away on one of the rooftops, waiting for the correct moment to make an entrance. Peter’s crouched beside him in his suit as well, sans the mask. They both have bisexual pride flags tied around their necks like capes, you know, for subtlety.

“Everyone’s gonna lose their mind,” Peter shouts over the loud parade under them, “I hope you know that, Mr. Stark.”

“I’m counting on it,” he laughs, his faceplate’s open showing off the make-up he has on. It’s just some eyeliner with flecks of glitter brushed over his eyelids and across his cheekbones. This feels so insanely cathartic.

“Ready, Mr. Biron Man?” Peter grins, pulling his mask back over his face.

Tony lets his faceplate fall back down into place, “You bet.”

Just as they’re about to fly down with their prepared confetti cannons, Peter stops him by grabbing Tony’s arm. His mechanical eyes grow comically wide as he gasps, “Shit, Mr. Stark! I forgot something!”

“Please don’t tell me you forgot the streamers, it’s very important for the striptease.”

“No! I forgot to tell you – I’m bisexual too!”

Tony stares at his stupid, idiotic kid. Then, he promptly bursts out laughing.

“Let’s go tell the whole damn world.”

To say that the crowd goes berserk is an understatement. And they don’t quieten down one bit after Tony and Peter’s appearance. It’s the most fantastical experience of Tony’s life. He knows that he’s gone over the top with all of this but he doesn’t care one bit. The day is about _pride_ after all.

But it’s not all about the spectacle of it (although Tony very much enjoys doing his striptease bit with the Iron Man suit in front of thousands of people). Let’s just say he leaves with his pockets twenty million dollars lighter.

At night when the party’s over and they’ve all gone their separate ways, Tony finds himself sitting on his bed with Pepper standing in front of him. She’s gently wiping away the last of his eyeliner with a cotton pad while humming to herself. It’s so quiet and serene, a drastic contrast from the kind of day he’s had.

“Hey, Pep?” he calls, eyes closed and his voice a little heavy from how much he’d been shouting and laughing all day.

“Yeah?” she hums in response.

“I think I’m finally at ten.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the striptease scene is heavily inspired by an alternate ending title card from iron man 3. you can find them here: 
> 
> https://tincanmans.tumblr.com/post/176599985151/striptease-concept-for-the-iron-man-3-title
> 
> OR
> 
> https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/iron-man-3/
> 
> pls check it out, it's such a gem

**Author's Note:**

> comment prompts/whatever else love reading them 
> 
> htmllost on tumblr


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